star treatment
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: 'The first time Rey had seen the new Supreme Leader on his throne, she hadn't even mustered the energy to be angry.'


**Notes: Another promptthat I saw and couldn't really resist, focused on _the_ Throne and the possibilities it brings. The title is taken from Arctic Monkeys's _Star Treatment_ because this entire album was playing on loop while I wrote this thing. I had an inordinate amount of fun with it; hopefully it's enjoyable.**

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The first time Rey had seen the new _Supreme Leader_ on his throne, she hadn't even mustered the energy to be angry. He hadn't acknowledged her at first, busy with the half-hearted argument he was having with one of his subordinates, but his eyes had flickered in her direction as the connection had settled into place and Rey had been able to feel an almost physical manifestation of the interest breaking through his overwhelming boredom. _Finally_. He hadn't said it, but he might as well have; the word had still echoed in her mind. Rey should have tried to tune him out once again, she'd known, but it had been impossible after this particular wordless greeting. It was infuriating; almost as infuriating as him.

The second time, she'd actually felt the weight of the realisation that she could see his entire surroundings now. It seemed to be entirely random – sometimes it was Ben that was alone in her environment and Rey always found it to be way more stressful then (he could see everything around her, _everything_ , and there were only so many places for the Resistance to hide in the galaxy) and she'd never admit it to it, but she almost enjoyed the situation when it was the other way around. The throne room was vast and dimly illuminated and Rey could barely distinguish the throne and the guards surrounding it in the faint light of distant stars when she caught Ben in a moment of mediation. The guards in question were dressed in clothes almost identical to his own and just like him, they were nothing but shadows until they moved. Sometimes, Rey even thought they could see her.

The third time, that theory had _almost_ been proven right. Ben had dismissed them as soon as he'd noticed her and that was when she'd realised that he'd decided to use his own knights for the job, clearly sceptical of everyone else's loyalty. Another realisation: despite all his training and knowledge, he felt at a loss. His position meant that he was safe, but it brought no satisfaction whatsoever and that made it almost worthless to him, but he wasn't ready to give it up – not when it was his only chance to ensure his survival.

"They can feel your presence," he'd said the fourth time, when she'd asked about it. Rey had stepped closer and had been able see him more easily; the darkness had gradually thinned at her unspoken request. Now that they were alone, he'd relaxed in his throne, arms braced on the handles as if to fill it out as well as possible. It was more impressive than it had been when Snoke had been the one trying it and Ben's lips curled in a displeased grimace at the stray thought, as if the comparison had left a bad taste even through the bond. "They can't _see_ you, exactly, but the movement in the Force is enough to make them _guess_."

"Doesn't that bother you?" Another tentative step forward. His clothes weren't quite the same now, Rey noticed; the upper half of his torso was encased in some kind of golden contraption over his tunic that seemed designed to pull his shoulders back. It went all the way up his neck on the back and the way it pulled on his hair was yet another minor annoyance that plagued the background of his mind. The regalia fit him well, she'd supposed, but it had looked about as uncomfortable as it likely felt.

"Rumours about disturbances in the Force are harmless." They made him feel intimidating rather than intimidated and Rey's irritation at that had reached critical levels. "The air of mystery can be beneficial, I've been informed."

There had been a half-shaped memory that had followed the statement; someone that Ben referred to as _the General_ presenting him with the jewels that he'd later put on because _the least you can do is not turn my life's work into a laughing stock, Ren_ , he'd said, and the recollection had been accompanied by vague amusement: _if he can't kill me, he'll make sure I'm presentable until he finds a way_.

He kept around a General that wanted him dead? Amongst the numerous disastrous decisions Rey had watched him make, this had to be the worst one yet.

"He can be useful from time to time," Ben had said once he'd picked up on the thought. It had been nowhere near enough as an explanation.

"I still don't understand."

"I thought you might not."

It hadn't been the first time Rey had desperately wished that she was corporeal enough to punch him in the face. It hadn't been the last either.

The fifth time, Ben had been the one out of place and Rey had discovered that she _could_ , in fact, initiate contact real enough to have impact when she'd shoved him forcefully away from the window that offered a generous view of the rather _distinguishable_ exterior of the Resistance base they were staying in. It had been too late – he had recognised the place, she was sure of it – and they'd had to flee later the same day. Everyone had been too busy wondering how the First Order had managed to track them down to pay attention to Rey, and it had been just as well. She hadn't been able to shake off the encounter for hours afterwards and, more than that, hadn't been able to forget the look in Ben's eyes as he had evaporated in front of her. There had been something hungry there; hungry and carefully restrained and satisfied in a way that made her stomach twist with a feeling she couldn't fully pinpoint.

The sixth time, he'd kissed her.

It had been so unexpected that Rey hadn't even had the time to do anything about it. Ben had taken her silence as encouragement; had pressed forward and cupped her face in his hands, fingers clutching at her as if she was a ghost he wanted to keep pinned in one place. It had been frantic and anxious and _everything_ and Rey had allowed it, eventually, opening her mouth and letting him in. It hadn't been a surrender – she'd wanted this, she'd realised, had wanted it for a while and really, who could it hurt? Maybe it would be enough to keep him distracted from everything else whenever the connection between them opened on her side of the galaxy. It was unlikely, Rey had to admit, but it was something and she clung to it ( _to him_ ) with more determination than she'd thought herself capable of.

She'd lost count of the times they'd met since then and for the most part, it was a blessing. It didn't matter if either of them was trying to initiate it on purpose now and it didn't have to _mean_ anything. It was a diversion tactic on both ends, she suspected, and if it hadn't been terribly effective on either side, it was still better than nothing. It had somehow led Rey to her current position, too – sprawled over the Supreme Leader's throne, as substantial under her as it was ever going to get, and, well. It wasn't what she'd call _progress_ , not when it came to the war in general, but she was too exhausted to keep up the pretence that any of this had anything to do with the war. It was all too easy to push the thought away at least temporarily when Ben sank to his knees in front of her, pushing her clothes out of the way in a surprisingly hectic mix between the Force and his actual touch.

"Then stop thinking."

Rey glanced down at the rough whisper, startled out of the false security his kisses up her legs had provided. "What?"

"The war," Ben supplied. The hand that wasn't currently curled around her waist crept up to her breasts and the fabric dutifully unwrapped from around her chest to fall to the sides. "If it's so easy to make you forget it, stop thinking about it."

"That's not what I said." She hadn't even _said_ anything. "Get out of my head."

"If that's what you want." He disappeared from view once more and Rey's eyes fluttered shut for a moment, fingers turning into a fist in his hair as his tongue swiped at her again, light and fleeting and absolutely maddening. He'd been at it for a while now; just long enough to make her restless and yet entirely unwilling to move. "But I don't think you'd like me to."

She twitched convulsively, both at the sensation and at the spike of pleasure that usually came from Ben's direction when she spurred him on like this. It was different from the feeling when it was his fine golden chains that caught on the dark strands, she'd discovered, and they both enjoyed it far too much.

All thoughts of Ben's unexpected preferences vanished as soon as he brought himself even closer, deserting the small of her back in favour of pushing two of his fingers inside her again, twisting them until he got a gasp out of her. He hummed appreciatively as Rey's thighs wrapped around him and looked up she hooked them over his shoulders. His mouth was already glistening with both slick and saliva and had stretched into the thin, smug smile that never failed to make her blood boil. The gemstones of his insignia dug into the insides of her knees and she pulled him closer, almost in a daze. He'd added another finger and the insistent rhythm of the stimulation made her toes curl despite the irrational emptiness that the absence of his mouth had left her with.

Any impending complaint she could have had turned into a yelp as Rey found herself slipping down the throne a little further until Ben's precautious hold on her ribcage was the only thing stopping her from losing her balance completely. He'd leant down again before she could blink and something embarrassingly close to a _whine_ slipped from her lips as he got to work with the same sort of devastating focus that he seemed to apply to everything that mattered.

No one could hear her, Rey knew, but it didn't matter anymore: she wouldn't have been able to hold back even if she'd tried to. The hand he'd braced against her chest had finally closed around one of her breasts and she should have protested, should have told him to be careful, but she could almost feel the Force thrumming around her, keeping her suspended in a position that neither of them would have managed to hold otherwise. It was the same impulse that pinned her free hand against the handle of the throne when she tried to pull him up for a kiss.

" _Ben_." Rey hadn't meant to let it slip, but the tip of his tongue sliding up her slit made her feel lightheaded and almost weightless; enough for the reproachful bite to the inside of her thigh to feel almost pleasurable. It was a predictable reaction, one that she had learnt to expect, but it wasn't enough to make her give up on it.

He didn't let his indignation deter him for long – Rey could _feel_ the dull echo of the ache in his jaw as he tried to take her in fully and pulled his hand away to grip one of her legs where it was wrapped around his neck. She looked away, already dangerously close to the edge of overstimulation when his fingers massaged the sensitive skin of her breasts, flicking at one of her nipples and then the other until her hips bucked up on their own volition and Rey pushed herself even further into him, her nails digging harder into Ben's scalp as she tried to keep him in place.

Not that he was going anywhere – the tremor of his stifled groan right against the centre of her pleasure made it even harder to bite back the short, cut-off gasps that he drew from her. Ben was insatiable, it seemed, and maybe she didn't mind him wandering around her mind if those were the results that it brought. The pleasure was building up inside her, approaching its peak with every firm stroke of his tongue and in the end, it was that and the drag of his lower lip over her clit that finally did it. Rey cried out as she collapsed against him completely, the coiled-up tension in her muscles morphing into a full-body shudder as she clenched hard around him, a distant, foggy part of her mind acknowledging the way his breathing hitched at the movement. He didn't stop, not even when she tried to unenthusiastically push him away with the one hand she could still move, only pulling off of her when she managed to get out a weak whimper. One of his arms pulled her into a sitting position as he straightened up and Rey went along with it, still trembling from the aftershocks that her release had brought.

"Too much?" There was something strangely earnest, both in the question and in the wide-eyed look that accompanied it, and she shook her head. It was a terrible idea. The worst one she'd ever had, likely. It was irresistible. "Just say the word."

The only response she could manage was to relax against the already warm surface behind her and apparently, it was enough of an answer. The chains on his tunic clinked against the floor when Ben went back to his knees in front of his throne and Rey closed her eyes as he lowered his head between her thighs once again.


End file.
